Kenise Barnes Fine Art is pleased to present Snowbird, a stunning mid-winter exhibition. The show features four artists working on and with paper in dynamic ways that will lift you out of the chilliest winter blues. Snowbird, a large collage by Josette Urso, was the inspiration for my escapist daydreaming and this exhibition title.

Tennessee artist Charles Clary has captured the attention of art collectors and the media with his hand-cut paper whorls, crevices and towers. The newest work featured in Snowbird and in the Art on Paper fair (NYC in March 4- 9) is original and contemporary with an anthropological bent. Wallpapered sheetrock panels have been created, destroyed and complicated. The artist excavates areas of plastered wall and fills the voids with his multi-layered, highly colored, cut paper compositions taken from the structure of land formations, viral colonies and concentric sound waves. Clary earned his BA from Middle Tennessee State University and his MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Michiyo Ihara continues her graphite snowflake series, now numbering over 125. Ihara’s astounding drawings are entirely hand-drawn and imagined, her draftsmanship and details are unmatched. Organized on a square sheet of warm white paper, the pencil drawings occupy the middle of the space and reach away from the center with nearly symmetrical, lacy, cell-like layers. The drawings describe contained worlds, each unique as snowflakes. The gallery will also feature Ihara’s drawings in the Art on Paper fair.

Jenny Kemp’s most recent accolade is her inclusion in the 2014 book 100 Painters of Tomorrow by Kurt Beers. She was further singled out by Katherine Brooks in The Huffington Post, in 10 Painters Who Are Changing Their Medium in the 20th Century. Kemp’s extraordinary color sense brings pulsing vibrancy to her looping and weaving gouaches. Kemp’s work has been included in exhibitions throughout the US and in a number of private and public collections. The artist earned her BA from University of Wisconsin and her MFA from University at Albany. She is an assistant visiting professor at Middlebury College and lives in Troy, NY.

New York artist Josette Urso works across many mediums while employing her language of small marks containing information like the incidents in a journey of starts, and pauses, activity and rest. Each collage in the show has more than 500 pieces of vintage and contemporary paper. The purpose and pattern of the collected papers are re-contextualized by their placement to create new relationships. Represented by the gallery since 2009, Urso has been honored with grants and residencies by The Pollack-Krasner Foundation, UCross Foundation, and The Adolph and Ester Gottlieb Foundation, to name a few. Her work has been shown extensively, including in the US, Switzerland, France, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Cambodia, Ireland, and Spain.